Rambutan!

It's the same cheap plastic colander the "ginger lily" or "Kamias" was in in my first post. That's just to follow "tradition"--like the kamias, a whole bag of Rambutan came also from a neighbor...whose tree has been giving an excess of the fruit!

     At no other time have I had so much rambutan...many fresh-picked and for free.  Well, maybe over a decade ago during a series of long stays in Thailand. There, rambutan is regular fare, along with papaya, pineapple, and other tropical fruits it seems.

     It is only this year that I realize how much there is in Santa Rosa, and even more so in Silang.  I am happy that my child has come to love this fruit so much, she asks to have it for snack time at school.  In fact, so many of her classmates love this. It was actually interesting for me to see one of her classmates open his food container, packed tight with the peeled rambutan. This is what snack time ought to look like! Not the processed, plastic packaged, additive, preservative, coloring-laden junk kids are now being discouraged (hopefully) to snack on.

   Inside, it is an oval shape, with a firm, smooth cloudy gelatin appearance. To open it, you squeeze the middle level of the skin (it looks prickly but those prickles are soft not sharp) with your thumb and forefinger, this should open crosswise. To eat it, you may nibble it in bits.  It doesn't matter if some of the seed's skin gets stuck in the flesh. If opened at the right stage---apparently when firm and maybe even slightly green sometimes--the flesh comes off the seed easily.  The seed resembles an almond.

     The rambutan has a mild flavor. Strange how in the past weeks since its abundance I have come to actually seek the taste, despite the almost-blandness.  That's it's beauty I guess, a mild, gentle, juicy flavor that provides refreshment. In my childhood I've mostly had tangy, tiny ones, often not fresh anymore. It was always a surprise to open one...I was never sure if it was still alright--plump and smooth--or rotting.  In the groceries the fruits turn black on the outside. These are not as great as the ones I saw for sale by the roadside today:

     Just as I've admired the following fruits' colors:  Avocado Green, Macopa pink (and green), Guava Pink, Kamias Green...I have a new addition: Rambutan Red.  The photo doesn't quite capture it...but the Rambutan's red at this fresh-picked stage is not deep. It's something I would describe as maybe coral-red...it would make a good lipstick shade, I think.

    Lanzones is also in season. When I got this Rambutan, Lanzones had run out.